Media Center

Current eNewsletter

October 2014

William D. Friedman, President & CEO

Port reaches milestone with new liner service

Cleveland and the Northeast Ohio region are experiencing a renaissance and many attribute this to the adoption of entrepreneurial thinking among its citizens as inspired by the efforts of many, including Cleveland Foundation, JumpStart, Youngstown Business Incubator and area universities, among others. Its citizens still embrace the region’s historic strengths in manufacturing, medicine and professional services, yet there is now a willingness to accept new ideas and practices that break from old conventions.

This feeling is infectious and challenging every institution to consider how to reinvent services and to do more with the same or less resources. The Port is answering this call, as evidenced by our launch in April of the Great Lakes’ only regularly scheduled express liner service to Europe. This service (see video) is very much a start-up business, as it asks for changes in current practices and shipping conventions. It is centerpiece to our continued effort to serve the 21st Century needs of Northeast Ohio’s business community and help our region compete globally.

Launching the liner service has been challenging, but we knew that when starting. We expected more container freight and yet we were rewarded with more project or specialized freight than forecasted. We’ve also learned other things, such as with more frequently scheduled service that we can attract more business from those shipping containers. Our shipping partner Amsterdam-based Spliethoff Group has realized this too and declared it is investing in expanding the liner service to two port calls a month, as announced in September: READ MORE…

More News More Often

As this newsletter demonstrates, the Port is reporting its news and sharing its views more frequently through its blog. You can learn of these through social media, so please subscribe as a follower of the Port on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Twitter to stay in the know. And please don’t hesitate to share the knowledge with members of your networks. In fact, you can begin by sharing this newsletter when clicking on the social media share icons above my letter.

On the Docks

“Best port for customer service on the Great Lakes.” The Port of Cleveland recently received this distinction and scored highest nationally among all U.S. ports, according to a survey by Logistics Management. CEO Will Friedman credits an innovative European liner service and past rail investments. READ MORE…

More on the Docks

As we expand the Cleveland-Europe Express, we’ve also grown into a new strategic partnership for stevedore services from Valport, the stevedore for the Port of Valleyfield in Quebec, Canada. READ MORE…

On the Waterfront

The Port is committed to preserving welcoming waterfronts that are clean, safe, and attractive for business and recreation. The Port is proud to call the Downtown Cleveland Alliance our partner in this work, as its industrious staffers serve as crew for the ships and perform the hard work of cleaning the lake and river. We appreciate their dedication, so we were glad to receive an email recently from a local boater praising their efforts. READ MORE…

In the Community

When Goodyear recently announced it had eliminated Ohio as a candidate for its next production site for the global tire manufacturer, CEO Will Friedman helped citizens to not focus on the loss and to understand how the Port is positioning the region to attract employers in a column published by Crain’s Cleveland Business. READ MORE…